Miles Points and Sits

Okay, it's been a while since I get a chance to sit and write, but that's good cause it means I've been working. And things have been hectic, but we're hanging in there, still finding time to laugh about the hard times!

There are two very cool updates I want to share about Miles.
1. He's starting to use his pointer finger.
2. He can sit in his chair for like 10 minutes at a time while I read books to him.

Let me explain why these two things are so cool. As opposed to most typical children who are usually finger feeding, pinching, and grabbing small things with their fingers by the time they're 9 months, give or take a few, our kids have a tough time with that. Those are fine motor skills which are not easy for them to achieve. Miles has been using his thumb to point at things or to touch things for the last 3-4. He is not able to pinch or grasp small objects using his pointer ("grooming" finger) or middle fingers. His motor skills are still too rough so he continues to rake objects, like much younger kids do.

We've been working on grabbing small objects with his thumb and pointer for what feels like months! And finally, out of nowhere in the past 3 days I have seen him point at pictures in books with his pointer finger! I saw him playing his little piano and touching different textures with his pointer!! So the ability to isolate that pointer is finally emerging and from there will come the other fingers and the fine motor skills needed to control them and grasp the little objects, like a cheerio or a piece of egg, and feed himself!! It might still take a few months to see that, but there has been some progress and it is very exciting!

As for seeing him sit in his little chair and focus his attention for 10 minutes is also amazing for 2 reasons. Due to Miles' low muscle tone, his mid-body (or trunk/abs) is not very strong and it takes a lot of effort for him to balance sitting. Also, now that he's been doing the "worm crawl" as we call it, he knows how to get to his toys and all he wants to do is play all day long. So getting his attention for more than a few minutes to sit focused on a specific activity that I've created, while having him balance sitting in a chair is very difficult. But he's doing it!
In fact, these days, when I want him to focus on an activity, I sit him in the chair and he'll focus.

This evening I sat him in his chair and read him different parts of The Enchanted World of Winnie The Pooh and Miles sat there for a good ten minutes, completely enthralled. He was ready to keep going, but it was bath time and I was sufficiently happy that he focused when I asked him too.

It might not seem like much, but trust me, it's huge!